Last of the Time Ladies
by Everything's Slipping Away
Summary: Melanie was ordinary, until Captain Jack, head of Torchwood in Cardiff, told her the truth about her past, which led her to be mixed up in a world of monsters, mysteries, and Time Lords arguing over her. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1: Discovering the Truth

Last of the Time Ladies

Author's note: Sorry if anyone slips OOC, Doctor Who hasn't been on for a while, so I might not have some of the characters quite right. But still, enjoy, read, and don't forget to review

Chapter 1 - Discovering the Truth

Melanie ran, it was all she could think to do. Through the back door, straight through the house, out the front door, down the street, past the bins outside number 72, round the corner, and straight on, until she skidded to a halt in a secluded alleyway. "Why me?" she muttered, breathing heavily, "Why is he after me?"

"Because I know." the stranger who had been hurtling after her appeared infront of her only means of escape.

"Know what?" She said with a puzzled frown, "I thought Torchwood only dealt with aliens, and I'm no alien. You can test my DNA and everything, there's nothing alien abou-"

"How do you know about Torchwood?" he raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"I know I shouldn't have," she looked down at her feet sheepishly, "But I couldn't resist seeing if the rumours were true."

He looked like he was going to get angry, but instead he laughed and said, "Nice work, kid. I suppose since you hacked in, you already know who I am."

"Captain Jack Harkness." Melanie smiled, "Amazingly managed to fight in both world wars and still be alive today. What's your secret? That wasn't mentioned on the Torchwood database."

"I can't say, not until you know. And for that, you're going to have to come with me back to HQ." he said, after some thought.

"Sorry, no can do." she walked casually past Jack, but he grabbed her shoulder and pressed a button on his watch.

-----

Before Melanie could so much as ask even one of the millions of questions buzzing in her head, she fell face first onto the floor of Torchwood HQ in Cardiff.

"What the hell was tha-" she began.

"Don't ask." Jack interupted.

"So, what's this thing that you know that I don't know?" she asked, standing up and dusting herself down.

Jack didn't answer, but started rifling through one of the drawers of a steel grey filing cabinet, until he produced a piece of paper from it. The strange symbols drawn on it were surprisingly neat. "Aha!" he grinned, "Here you go, this should explain a lot."

She took the paper from him. It looked old, much older than her, but the print itself was preserved perfectly. "Sorry, can't read it." she said apologetically. Of course, this was a lie. Miraculously, she could read it quite fluently, with the odd spot of difficulty, but if she admitted this, it would no doubt lead to Torchwood executing several tests, which would lead to a lot of frustration and confinement for her.

"Come on, of course you can." he said, then the puzzled expression lifted from his features, "Oh, I see, you don't want any fuss over being an alien. Don't worry, we're not interested in locking you up or anything, it's just a friend thought you should know the truth."

"Right. First question," she said abruptly, "This birth certificate says I'm over 900 years old. How is that even possible?"

"Gallifreyans-namely Time Lords and Time Ladies-don't die of old age." Jack explained, "Also, you have this neat trick that lets you cheat death, s'called regeneration. I think you're the only 900 year old that hasn't had to use it."

"Next question," she said immediately, "If I was born on Gallifrey, how did I end up on Earth?"

"Ah, well, you see," He said, clearly trying to word it so that Melanie wouldn't be offended, "Normally, Time Ladies were less authorative than the Time Lords, and did as they were told. You weren't quite so obedient, and the Time Lords feared that you overthrow them. So, rather than letting you grow up and be a renegade, when you were just four years old, they sent you to sleep for a long time. But then, during the Time War, for some reason you started to wake up. The Time Lords panicked, so they made you human and sent you to Earth in the first year they found, which happened to be the dawn of the twenty-first century."

"And lastly, what happened to the Time Lords and the Time Ladies after the Time War?" she smiled, "Can I go and see them and Gallifrey?"

Jack was about to answer when another voice interrupted, "Sorry, sweetheart, they're all gone. They burnt in the Time War, and Gallifrey went with them. It's all gone. Except me."

Jack and Melanie turned sharply to see a middle-aged man standing in the 'doorway' of a filing cabinet.

"You!" Jack narrowed his eyes, "How are you still alive? You died, she shot you, you chose to die! You'd better leave right now or I swear I'll-"

The stranger laughed, "Don't worry, I'm leaving. But I'm leaving with her." He pointed to Melanie.

"Can someone please explain what's going on?" she asked as calmly as she could manage.

"He's lying." Jack said, "He's not the last Time Lord. I know another, he's called the Doctor, go with him, not-"

"Oh, come on, Jack, don't be stingy." the stranger said mock sulkily, "I found her first. And besides-"

"Who exactly are you?" Melanie interrupted with a puzzled frown.

"I'm the Master." The Master grinned, "And I know all about you, Melanie."

"Leave her be." Jack snarled.

"But don't you want Gallifreyans to escape the brink of extinction and start again?" The Master smiled, and Melanie blushed a violent shade of red.

"Not if you're at the head of it." Jack said fiercely.

"'Fraid it's not your choice, Captain." The Master grabbed Melanie's arm. She tried to twist out of his grip, but it was no good. And Jack's last words before she was dragged aboard the Master's TARDIS/filing cabinet were three little words: "He'll save you."


	2. Chapter 2: Getting to know the Master

Author's note: Once again, pre-apology for any OOCs. One again, please read, enjoy, and review (I encourage you especially to review)

Chapter 2 - Getting to know The Master

The Master turned the key in the TARDIS door, and after making sure that nobody would be getting in or out, turned and looked Melanie up and down.

Melanie narrowed her eyes, a brief flash of puzzlement crossing her features as she began to ask, "How come-"

"I must say, you don't look half bad. Shame about the ponytail. It makes you look so plain and boring." He sharply tugged a blue hair bobble out of her hair, which spilled over her shoulders, "Much better. Keep your hair down, love, you look gorgeous."

"Perv." she muttered, "If I'm about 900 then you must be hundreds of years older."

"Three." He smiled.

"Only three hundred years older?" she frowned, "Would've thought it'd be more than that."

He laughed, "Not quite. I'm only three years older."

"It's still pointless flirting." she glowered at him, "Jack didn't trust you, and since he seems a nice enough person, I don't trust you."

He looked genuinely hurt for a moment, but it was replaced with a grin as quickly as it appeared, "Don't be like that, Mel, you'll like me once you get to know me."

"Unlikely." she said, still glaring, "And don't call me Mel. My name's Melanie."

"Come on, give me a fair chance." he said, a bit of sadness in his eyes, but his grin remained, "It's not like you have much of a choice now, is it?"

Melanie sighed, "Fine, fine. I suppose it couldn't do any harm."

He smiled, evidently delighted, "Great! Now, where do you want to go? Ancient Greece? The Seventh British Empire in the year 50 million? Maybe even Alpha Centuri 9?"

"This filing cabinet/weird alien looking contraption travels through time and space?" she raised an eyebrow.

"It's not a filing cabinet, it's a Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, TARDIS for short," He explained, "And yes it travels through time and space, it's what it's built for. And before you ask, it looked like a filing cabinet because it was blending in with its surroundings, which just so happened to be a room full of filing cabinets. You see, it has this chameleon circuit which changes the outside of the TARDIS to look like something that would normally appear in whichever place it lands."

"And you expect me to travel through time and space in this thing with someone I know next to nothing about?" she almost laughed, "I may have a few thick moments, but I'm not _that_ stupid."

"Fine, if that's how it is." he said with the same grin, "Ask me anything you want."

"Back there, back in Torchwood HQ, Jack said you were supposed to be dead, that someone shot you." she said curiously, "What exactly happened?"

"Ah, well, that's a bit embarrassing." He said sheepishly, "You see, being a villain and all, I tend to do generic villain-type things, like taking over the world. I managed it once; it all went well for a year. And then that damned Martha Jones had to ruin it all by freeing the Doctor. And it seemed I was doomed to an eternity of being a prisoner of the Doctor. And then my wife shot me. How embarrassing. Killed by a girl!"

"So how come you survived the shot? Did you regenerate?" She asked, still curious.

"God no. I'd be a prisoner if I had. No, I did die. But my life force was in my ring, and a friend of mine who happens to know a great deal about cloning had already prepared a new body for me in the eventuality that I had no option but to die." He explained, "Since I'm a Time Lord, and I managed to get a good look at the Doctor's TARDIS while I'd turned it into a paradox machine, I was able to reconstruct this beauty. And you know all the rest."

"Pretty impressive lie you made there to try and get my sympathy." She said, glaring at him, "What do you take me for? A completely stupid and naïve kid?"

"But it's true." He insisted, then smiled sadly, "Would've known you wouldn't trust me, sweetheart. Nobody does these days. But trust me, my world takeover days are over. I just want to lay low for a while, relax, not have to worry about my plans going wrong. Besides, what kind of gentleman would I be dragging a lady along with my evil plots?"

"How many times am I going to have to tell you to stop flirting with me?" Melanie said irritably.

"Always at least once more, sweetheart." He grinned, "Anyway, where do you want to go?"

"You mean I could go anywhere?" She asked.

"Yep, anywhere." He said, still grinning.

"Anywhere at all?" She said, still trying to absorb that she had to power to choose anywhere.

He sighed, mock irritably, "Yes, anywhere at all. Ladies get first choice and all that."

"I wouldn't know where to start. I only found out about this whole aliens thing today." She said, deciding it would be best if she just went along with everything.

"Alright, if you can't choose," He grinned, pulling down a lever and pressing a huge button, "Then the TARDIS'll have to instead. You may want to hold onto something very very tightly, or you may end up on the floor with minor injuries."


End file.
